Biblical Astronomy of the Mercury Transit on May 9th, 2016.
The following excerpt from our March Blog post on the Purim Penumbral Lunar Eclipse on March 23rd, 2016; provides an important basis upon which to begin this post.
“The key heavenly signs in March of 2016 began with a Total Solar Eclipse on March 9th. This March 9th New Moon/Total Solar Eclipse, actually aligned March 9th-with Nisan 1, followed only 2 weeks later by a Nisan 14 Passover Lunar Eclipse on March 23rd!”1 These celestial alignments were based on the Barley harvest in Israel that was not only verified as ripe, but also in plentiful enough supply from multiple accredited sources not to add the extra 13th month of Adar 2 to the Hebrew Calendar in 2016/5776. This gives us a Lunar Eclipse Sextet from 2014-2016, falling on key Hebrew Feast days of Nisan 1, Passover, Rosh Hashana and the Feast of Tabernacles over a 3 year period. In this special year 5776 on the Hebrew Calendar, the 50-year Jubilee is being celebrated. With this in mind we should pay close attention to the 50 days that Israel counts between Passover and Pentecost. It is during this period just prior to Pentecost that the Transit of Mercury, takes place on May 9th 2016.
This Mercury Transit will be seen in the Solar sight line between Aries and the Pleiades of Taurus. The planet Mercury has the fastest orbit around the Sun of all planets in our Solar System-only 88 days. This translates into a Mercury alignment between the Earth and Sun on at least 3 occasions annually. However, Mercury’s orbit rarely leads to a direct alignment, taking place an average of twice every 10 years, and only during the months of November or May. Norton’s Star Atlas tells us concerning Mercury Transits; “the November variety is more common, repeating at intervals of 7, 13 and 46 years. May transits recur at intervals of 13 and 46 years. In the 21st century a Mercury Transit took place on May 7, 2003, followed by another Mercury Transit on Wednesday, Nov 8th, 2006.”2 Below is a NASA video of Mercury transiting across the face of the Sun. “This transit began at 2:12 pm EST (11:12 am PST) lasting for almost five hours. Good views of this transit were available all along the Pacific Rim:”3
What did it look like? A picture is worth a thousand words:
Image credit: Larry Koehn. Click to view the Sun’s full disk.
During the transit, Mercury’s tiny disk—jet black and perfectly round—glided slowly across the face of the Sun. Only a speck of the Sun’s surface is actually covered, so as with all Mercury Transits the Sun remains as dangerous as ever to look at. But with a proper filter and a little imagination, Transits of Mercury can be a marvelous experience. The next one after the upcoming May 9, 2016 transit; will be on November 11, 2019.”4 The length of the line traversed by the planet in its passage across the Sun’s disk determines the duration of a transit, which can last for up to 9 hours, as seen in the graphic below pertaining to this 2006 event 10 years ago.
If its orbit were exactly in the plane of the ecliptic, Mercury would transit the Sun once in each Synodic revolution. But since its orbit is inclined 7 degrees to the ecliptic, the planet usually passes above or below the Sun as seen from the Earth. A transit occurs only when Mercury is near one of its nodes at inferior conjunction. The ascending node relates to the position of the Earth on November 10, the descending node to the position on May 8. If inferior conjunction falls near one of these dates, Mercury will be seen as a tiny black spot, 10 – 12 arc–seconds wide, moving slowly across the face of the Sun.”5
There is an interesting correlation between the March 23rd/Nisan 14 Passover Penumbral Lunar Eclipse and the May 9th Mercury Transit between Aries and the Pleiades of Taurus, because in Biblical Astronomy, Aries
reflects the ultimate and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Passover, one of the Christ’s 7 Ministry Titles that we noted in our previous April blog post. Aries’ Alpha star [Al Nath] the brightest of its 66 main stars, means the wounded or slain one. Although the 5th consecutive Lunar eclipse on a Hebrew Holy day from 2014-2016, on Nisan 14 is not a Blood Moon, it links to the day the priests of Israel selected the Passover Lamb. Thus we find another element of the OT Law fulfilled by Christ in this pivotal 1-time sacrifice for all mankind. As the Feast of Unleavened Bread follows Passover we can see Jesus Christ-as the Firstborn in heaven not only resulting from his resurrection, but also in his Gathering of the spiritual body of his Church of resurrected believers out of the Age of Grace, [Ps. 2:6-8, I Cor. 15:20-23].6 We also find this reference to this Pleiades symbolism below.
The renowned cluster of stars called the Pleiades. according to Bullinger means the congregation of the judge or ruler. In the Septuagint the translation of the Hebrew כִּימָה, Chima, meaning the heap or accumulation, as in [Job 9:9; 38:31, 32,] and Amos 5:8. It consists of a cluster of stars (in the neck of Taurus) appearing near together. The brightest of them, marked η in all the maps,59 has come down to us with an Arabic name—Al Cyone, which means the centre. The Syriac name for the Pleiades is Succoth, meaning booths.”7 This provides a very interesting relation to the Feast of Tabernacles that includes the Day of Atonement, where Christ the High Priest is Tabernacled as the ruler among the gathering of his congregation, as the only true mediator between God and man. During this time of the Blood Moon Tetrad we can see other related Mercury sky signs, for example in April 2015 which saw the Passover Blood Moon and Nova Sagittarii, we noted a conjunction of Mercury and Mars in Aries on the 22nd. In addition to this there was an alignment of Mercury with the Pleiades on June 20th in 2015. These 2015 Mercury signs provide an interesting context to the Mercury Transit of 2016, as the Arch-Angel Gabriel, heralds the sky signs leading to Christ’s return.
As these sky signs of 2016 including the Lunar Eclipse Sextet of 2014-2016 and the May 9th, Mercury Transit set the stage for a replay of the birth signs of Jesus Christ from Rev.12 in September of 2017, we can see other activities of Mercury during this period. We should keep in mind that the replay of these birth signs of Christ in 2017 including Jupiter the King Planet and Royal Sceptre being birthed in Virgo on 9/9/17, after spending a “gestation period” in retrograde motion in Virgo’s mid-section. This is interesting when we consider the retrograde motion of Mercury leading to this, because in Sept. 2015 during the culmination of the Blood Moon Tetrad of 2014-2015, we saw the [Sun clothing Virgo with the Moon at her feet] on Sept. 17th 2015, along with the Sept. 17th [Mercury-Spica union in Virgo]. This occurs 2 years prior to the Sept. 2017 replay of the birth signs of Christ which will be followed by the Sept. 30th, 2017, lowest point retrograde motion of Mercury in Virgo. On 10/29/15 Mercury was also birthed in Virgo after a gestation period of nearly six weeks. This shows many ways in which the Archangel Mercury-Gabriel is announcing the the victorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ as seen in Rev. 19 below.
Rev. 19:1-21
19 After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God: 2 for true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the great harlot, her that corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he hath avenged the blood of his [a]servants at her hand.
3 And a second time they [b]say, Hallelujah. And her smoke goes up[c]for ever and ever. 4 And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sits on the throne, saying, Amen; Hallelujah. 5 And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all ye his [d]servants, ye that fear him, the small and the great.
This awesome audible Voice from Heaven announces the Lord Jesus Christ returning WITH his Saints to destroy the beast, false prophet and those who will follow them at the battle of Armageddon. This opens the Age of Christ with the destruction of the Anti-Christ and his kingdom.
11 And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and he that sat thereon [g]called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems; and he hath a name written which no one knoweth but he himself. 13 And he is arrayed in a garment [h]sprinkled with blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. 15 And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the [i]winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And he hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
17 And I saw [j]an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid heaven, Come and be gathered together unto the great supper of God; 18 that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of [k]captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great.
This Mercury Transit has been likened to verse 17 since the planet Mercury symbolizes the Messenger Archangel Gabriel. The transit of Mercury crossing the face of the Sun is seen as this angel Gabriel “standing in the Sun” heralding the victorious return of the Light of the World and King of Kings, even as he announced the coming Promised Seed of Mary leading to his birth, [Lk. 1:26-38, Matt. 1:20-25]. This alignment of sky signs including the Lunar Eclipse Sextet from 2014-2016 in the Jubilee Year of 5776 may signal a window for the Savior to return FOR his Saints that bookends the first appearance and return of the King of Kings at the right hand of God.
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against his army. 20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that [l]worshipped his image: they two were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone: 21 and the rest were killed with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came forth out of his mouth: and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
As we keep a watch on the activities of Mercury-Gabriel this year, we will have plenty of celestial pointers to keep us aware of the Victorious Return of Christ.
Footnotes
1. Purim Penumbral Lunar Eclipse on March 23rd, 2016 [Blog.try-god.org] March 2016 archive
2. Norton’s Star Atlas, Arthur P. Norton
3. science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/20oct_transitofmercury/
4. IBID
5. Norton’s Star Atlas, Arthur P. Norton
6. Seminar on the Lord Jesus Christ, Jon Nessle
7. Witness of the Stars, E.W. Bullinger
8. Passover Blood Moon and Nova Sagittarii [Blog.try-god.org] April 2015 archive
9. Revelation 19, KJV
